Naruto On the Run
by landmarj
Summary: Danzo made the political moves he should have after the Konoha Crush. His actions force Jiraiya to take Naruto and flee Konoha. Now with only the support of his sensei, Naruto has to take on the Akatsuki and fear what his old home sends after him.
1. Danzo's Move

xX Konoha Xx

Giggling to himself, a man was crouched on one of the many buildings that gave him the best vantage point to look onto the women's side of the hot springs in the Hidden Leaf Village. His cheeks grew more rosey and his grin wider as he continued to peer through his personal telescope which he always kept on his person for this reason specifically. This was Jiraiya. One of the three legendary Sannin of the Hidden Leaf and one of the strongest shinobi in the world.

"I still see you haven't given up on foolish things have you?"

Jiraiya gave a small sigh. "I'm just doing it one more time."

With an annoyed frown, Jiraiya turned his head back to look at the two presences he felt behind him. "Homura-sensei, Koharu-sensei right? What business do committee advisors have with me?"

Standing behind the man were two elders of the village. The both of them were once teammates of his old sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi. They then became advisors once his sensei ascended to the position of Hokage. They were Sarutobi's advisors until his unfortunate death not three days ago.

Homura was a man with grey hair and shot beard. He wore glasses with blue and white robes. "What business are we here for? We have something to discuss with you. You probably already know what it is."

"So you say…" Jiraiya put his telescope away and turned to face his visitors. His lecherous activities were surely spoiled for a while. I will come back later he mentally noted to himself. "Even though your faces don't show it, talks with the Sand Village are not going well."

"Right now our relationship with the Sand is not important." Homura grumbled. "The power of the Hidden Leaf is declining and people are starting to get fearful. We have to prepare for the upcoming crisis."

"We do not know when neighbouring villages will start taking bold actions once again." Koharu said. She was a woman who had her grey hair in a top bun with ornate jewellery in it. She wore black robes with a white sash that went across her shoulder. "Until the power of the village is restored, several of our top people from the forces were summoned to form an emergency committee. The committee discussed it quickly and the Hidden Leaf needs a strong leader."

"What we need is a new Go Daime Hokage." Homura continued. "Jiraiya we decided that it would be yo-"

"Unlucky for you," Jiraiya interrupted. "I'm not the type for it."

"It was decided Jiraiya." Homura replied heatedly. "Are you not one of the three Sannin?"

Jiraiya placed his hand on the back of his neck, scratching it awkwardly. He looked off into the distance, staring passed the walls of the village. "There is another one of the Three you know." The Toad Sage turned his gaze back towards the two advisors. "That person is Tsunade."

Both committee members looked between each other silently. "That is true…" Koharu replied after a moment of contemplation. "She is qualified to succeed but her whereabouts are still unknown."

"I will go and find her. That shouldn't be a problem should it?" The Toad Sage hopped onto the railing which circled the roof in a crouching position with his back to the committee members.

"You will need a squad of Anbu with you for a Tsunade search party." Homura stated.

Jiraiya waved his elders off. "That won't be necessary. I'm not going to run away. However there is someone I want to accompany me. I found an interesting new egg." The Sannin was about to go on his way before another voice spoke out.

"If you are speaking about the Kyuubi Jinchuriki then you will not be allowed."

That voice always made Jiraiya's blood boil. It belonged to a man who he always believed to have a very skewed moral compass.

Turning his head back with a glare Jiraiya saw a man standing next to Homura and Koharu. Leafs twirled around his person, clearly the aftermath of a Shushin no Jutsu. The man had short black hair and bandages that wrapped around his forehead and right eye. He also had his right arm in a bandaged sling and his left hand held a simple wooden cane. The rest of his attire were nondescript white a blue robes.

"I never took you for someone who would appear so flashy Danzo." Jiraiya said as he stepped off the railing to face the group again. His heated gaze never left Danzo as he did so.

Danzo did not show that he was irked by Jiraiya's attitude. His face showed no emotion at all. "I will get right to business. Control of the Kyuubi Jinchuriki has been taken over by me. I will be teaching him personally."

The killing intent that flew off of Jiraiya was almost strong enough to knock his elders back. The only sign that Jiraiya had any affect at all was the scowls from Homura and Koharo. "I will not let you take Naruto so you can mould him into an emotionless drone."

"The Kyuubi Jinchuriki is a military asset that we must use." Danzo stated. "Our village is weak and we must use every tool at our disposal."

"You have no right to decide who teaches Naruto!"

"But the emergency committee does." Homura said stepping forward. Jiraiya had moved aggressively closer towards Danzo and Homura placed himself between them. He did not want to play mediator but tensions between the other two were never good. "Jiraiya we cannot afford to not use all of our resources. Danzo brought up that our Jinchuriki's training was being neglected. What if Kumo takes this opportunity against us to attack and use their perfect Jinchuriki. We have nothing as powerful to stand guard."

"Then I will train him!" The toad sage shouted at Homura. "I will take the boy under my wing and I will make sure he is as powerful as he needs to be."

"We are sorry Jiraiya. The committee has already decided." Koharu said firmly. "He will be put under Danzo's care."

An intense silence fell between the group. No ones glares breaking from the stand off. Jiraiya kept racking his brain to find a solution to convince the three they were wrong, but he knew it would be futile. While he may have been one of or thee strongest shinobi in the village, he had been away from the village for years on intelligence missions and his political influence had seriously waned and he knew it. Part of the reason Jiraiya's word was even respected in the village before was because of his sensei.

Homrua and Koharu for years leaned more towards Danzo's militaristic was of thinking. In the last few years of the Third Hokage's rule, Sarutobi had been spending more time keeping his advisors at bay than doing any actual paperwork. Now that Sarutobi was gone, the elders had no push back on their influence across the village.

Jiraiya eventually turned his glare squarely on Danzo. "I will not let you take Naruto."

The bandaged elder through all the intensity still never showed it affected him. "Then step up like the committee asked and rule against us."

"I'm not Sarutobi."

"Then you have no choice."

The standoff lasted for only a few more moments before Jiraiya disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Do we send Anbu after him?" Koharu asked.

"We should. But it won't matter." Danzo replied.

* * *

xX Konoha Interrogation Xx

A boy with spike blond hair, whisker marks on his cheeks and striking blue eyes sat in one of Konoha's interrogation rooms. He tugged annoyingly at his orange jumpsuit and kicked his feet up on the table in front of him. He had been sitting in that room for a couple hours now and was getting really really bored.

"Come on! Where is anyone!?" Naruto shouted to no one.

Earlier he had been enjoying some bowls of ramen at his favourite ramen stand in the village, Ichiraku Ramen. He was on his third bowl when two of Konoha's Anbu approached him and said he was needed by the village. Not one to disobey orders Naruto followed them and he was brought here. When asked what was going on he was told just to wait.

Patients was a virtue that Naruto never mastered and sitting around doing nothing while not knowing what you are waiting for was grinding on his nerves. This was cutting into his training time damn it!

After the invasion of Sunagakure and Otogakure and the funeral of the Third Hokage, Naruto had been throwing himself into training. He was proud that he was able to protect Sakura and Sasuke from Gaara and win the fight but after he was able to see the destruction of the village and one of the people closest to him passed away, winning the fight didn't seem to matter so much anymore. In fact the blonde was sure he would have spiralled down if it had not been for the words of wisdom Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei had given him at the funeral.

For the past two days Naruto had been going through the summoning jutsu that Jiraiya had taught him. He would summon Gamakichi and his small toad friend would tell him all about the other toads on Mount Myoboku Naruto could summon. After he was done learning from Gamakichi he would move on to practice taijutsu against his Shadow Clones. He thought he was getting better but it was almost as if his clones knew exactly what he was going to do and were able to prepare. The clones managed to clock him in the face multiple times and they always had a good laugh about it until he cancelled the jutsu out frustration.

The more and more the whiskered boy had time to think in that room, the more he realised that his training had no direction. During and after the Ninja Academy he just trained whatever he thought would be cool or deliver the strongest blow. Now after all this time since he had become a Genin the only things he had learned was the Summoning Jutsu, Shadow Clones and how to walk on trees and water using his chakra. Other than the academy taijutsu and working with other toads, he had nothing new to work on. He needed something new to develop or improve or the next time when he fought another Gaara, Sasuke or Sakura might be killed.

What he needed was guidance. Someone to show him the next steps in his training. He needed to talk to Kakashi-sensei or Pervy Sage. To do that though he needed to get out of this damn room!

Suddenly the sounds of crashing in the hallway outside grabbed Naruto's attention. It sounded as if people were fighting.

Getting out of his chair Naruto made his way to the door of the interrogation room. He was going to put his ear to the door but before he made it the door violently flew open. A body crashed through it and Naruto had barely reacted in time. The blonde had barely just sidestepped becoming the cushion between the Anbu that flew in and the wall he was now passed out against.

Jiraiya entered into the room and saw his student staring where the Anbu had cracked the wall. "Do you know how hard it was to find you gaki!?"

"Pervy Sage what the hell!?" Naruto shouted pointing dramatically at the unconscious Anbu. "What are you attacking other people for!?"

"Don't mind that. We need to get out of the village right now." The Toad Sage took out a scroll on his person and tossed it to his student. "In there is everything you need to travel for a while."

"Where are we going?" Naruto stuffed the scroll inside the pocket of his jumpsuit.

"We will discuss that on the way." Jiraiya went through the hand signs what Naruto recognised as a summoning jutsu and in a puff a smoke a small toad appeared. "Now I really need you to listen to me right now. Get in this toad." Jiraiya's face was completely serious.

Naruto on the other hand had a very deadpanned look. "….what?"

"Just get in the mouth of the damn toad!"

"How!? He's tiny!"

The Sannin dramatically dragged his hand down his face in frustration. "Put your foot inside his mouth and climb in!"

"But ho-?"

"JUST DO IT!"

"Ok! Ok!"

Naruto proceeded to gingerly move his foot towards the small amphibian. The toad just opened his mouth in an accepting manner, face not showing any emotion. When Naruto's foot finally touched he felt like his leg was almost being sucked in.

"Gross….." The Jinchuriki complained.

It took a few moments and grunting from the blonde in disgust but Naruto managed to squeeze himself in. As soon as last mop of blonde hair disappeared into his summons mouth Jiraiya scooped the toad up and fled.

* * *

xX Konoha Xx

It was mid afternoon and Danzo was sitting silently contemplating the days events in his office. Of course he wasn't in his actual study. The real one was in Root headquarters, but he needed this one to keep up appearances.

Jiraiya had fled with the Nine Tails Jinchuriki.

The old bandaged shinobi expected this though. In fact this is what he was hoping for. He knew that Jiraiya would not take up the post of Hokage but Danzo needed the Sannin's influence over the village removed completely. Threatening to use the Jinchuriki was the only way to force the Sannin to make a choice that would force him out of the village. It was annoying of course for the village to lose its Jinchuriki but that was only temporary.

The boy was completely untrained. He was barely a shinobi. When it was time for Konoha to acknowledge Jiraiya's treason Danzo would send to remove the Sannin from this world permanently and at the same time take back the tailed beast to put back into a proper host.

A knock at his door brought Danzo out of his thoughts. "Enter."

In walked both Homura and Koharu. "Danzo. Anbu cannot find Jiraiya or the Jinchuriki. We had sent more squads to search possible routes within the country but they had to immediately be called back." Koharu stated, her tone sounding urgent.

"What pray tell is more important for Anbu than finding a traitorous Sannin?" Danzo asked.

"Itachi was back in the village."

If the bandaged elder was surprised, he did not show it. A small twitch of a frown did cross his lips which the two advisors noticed but it was gone within the blink of an eye.

Danzo proceeded to make his way outside his office out into the hall, the two advisors following.  
"Who managed to make him leave the village?"

Leave. Because even Danzo knew there was no one in the village besides maybe him who could defeat that man.

"It was Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and Gai." Homura stated. "According to them Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki left when they knew reinforcements were coming. They did not want to fight the whole village."

That was understandable. No one in their right mind would choose to fight an entire village if they didn't have to. But the reason the two wanted shinobi were here was still unclear to him. Danzo had kept his promise to Itachi not to go after Sasuke, though not willingly of course. Hiruzen was very good at keeping a watch over the you Uchiha to make sure no took advantage of him. "Do we know the reason why they were here?"

"According to Kakashi they were here for the Jinchuriki." It was easy to tell Koharu was very worried about the situation. "They will surely go after Jiraiya and the boy. We should have kept the Jinchuriki more secure."

"Jiraiya broke through a whole platoon of Anbu just to get to the boy." Danzo stated. The Toad Sage had fought through actual Anbu, not his Root agents. "While the Sannin may have fled he holds no grudges towards the village. I'm not worried that Itachi will get the Jinchuriki. What is more concerning is the other Uchiha. I assume he found out his brother had returned?"

"We do not know."

That was a loose end that could not be left alone. Danzo remembered the threat Itachi gave him just after he had murdered his whole clan. Being threatened with murder and secrets though were part of the everyday life as a shinobi. He knew the young Uchiha would chase after his brother and that would be letting the last remaining pure blooded user of the sharingan who was loyal to the village go to waste.

Danzo would not let that happen. Not just because of what Itachi might potentially do.

* * *

xX Fire Country Forests Xx

In the forest of the Fire Country, ways away from Konoha, two figures dressed in black cloaks with red clouds on them were walking. Both had straw hats that covered their facial features.

"So you know where the Kyuubi brat is eh Itachi-san?" One of the cloaked figures said with a sharp toothy grin. "You think we can go nab him?"

"No. I don't think right now is the best time to go after the Kyuubi Jinchuriki." Itachi replied with a monotone voice.

"Why's that?" Kisame sounded slightly dejected. "I'm sure if we find him we can cut his little legs off so he won't be able to run away."

"The boy is being protected by Jiraiya of the Sannin."

"You don't think we can take him? I didn't think there was anyone you were afraid of fighting," the blue fish like man said with a bit of a cocky grin.

Itachi mannerisms did not show he even acknowledge the jest. "For some reason he is traveling towards the border of Wind Country. While I think we both could win that fight I don't believe we can make it to him in time before he gets there. If he fought him it would bring Sunagakure border forces on us. We already have Konoha looking for us, we do not need another country looking for us as well. It is not the time for our organisation to cause an international affair."

Kisame took a few moments to reflect before he let out a slightly annoyed groan. "Always thinking so logically Itachi-san. Can't just go for it because you enjoy the fight huh?" His sharp toothy grin quickly reappeared. "I guess you are right though. Let's head to a base and give our report. Leader-sama isn't going to like that we don't have an update on the Kyuubi Jinchuriki's abilities."

"No I suppose not."

"That's why you are going to be the one to tell him."

* * *

xX Konoha Uchiha District Xx

It was late in the evening when Sasuke had just finished packing and he heard rustling in his kitchen downstairs. With kunai in hand he slowly made his way down to the lower floor of his house. No one should be in his family home. No one should be in the Uchiha district period. He was going to seriously injure who ever thought they could desecrate and steal his clans belongings. He especially did not need this after he almost wasted the day trying to look for Naruto.

Why. Why would Itachi be looking for Naruto.

"You can come out of the shadows boy. I know you are there."

The voice of an older man calling him out took Sasuke by surprise. He had been extra careful not to make any noise.

"Come into the kitchen, we have much to discuss."

Knowing there was no reason to hide anymore, the young Uchiha came out from his hidden spot behind the door way, guard up. The scene he was presented with was sitting at his kitchen table a man with bandages around his head and eye. One of his arms was in a bandaged sling as well. He sat there very calmly, staring at the Uchiha with his one good eye.

"Who are you and how did you get passed my traps," Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"There is no need to discuss something so trivial, and my name is Danzo."

Danzo? Sasuke knew that name. He was one of the candidates for the seat of Hokage and eventually lost it to the Third. He then went on to be one of Konoha's higher ups for years, advising even the Hokage. What would Danzo want with him. "What do you want?"

"I want to give you an opportunity."

"I don't need your handouts." Sasuke snapped back quickly. There was some venom in his voice.

"You aren't able to kill Itachi." Instantaneously Sasuke's sharingan activated and he had his kunai pointed at the old man. Danzo did not even flinch at the threat. "Are you going to threaten another leaf shinobi for just saying the man's name?"

"You don't know anything!"

"I know that Itachi managed to mercilessly kill his whole clan and just today defeated Kakashi, your sensei, without even touching the man." Danzo stood up from his chair and moved around the table closer to Sasuke. He completely ignored the kunai ready to be thrown at his jugular. "You couldn't even hurt your sensei on your best day. And I also heard that you would have been killed during the invasion if it hadn't been for your blonde teammate."

First Itachi is looking for Naruto and completely ignoring him. Now the strength that Naruto has gained, which Sasuke reluctantly admits, has been thrown in his face. How is someone like Naruto, who could barely throw a shuriken straight six months ago, now the one who is getting all the focus and gaining more power than ever!

The struggle to coming to terms with the events that have recently happened were clearly shown on Sasuke's face. For someone whose image is to always act cool and collected he really shows emotion on the cuff of his sleeve when he's angry. This would be something Danzo trained out of the boy.

"I can give you the opportunity to give you the power that you want." Danzo continued. "I can train you to use your full potential. I can make you strong enough to kill your brother."

"What would you know about training someone like me?" Who also offered power for free? It always came a cost. A lesson that Sasuke learned harshly after all the bullshit he went through with the seal on the back of his neck.

Without hesitation Danzo with his good hand lifted his bandages covering his eye to show a sharingan underneath. The young Uchiha was to shocked at what was looking back at him to get furious.

"Wha- How do you have the sharingan!?" The boy asked aggressively.

Danzo slowly pulled the bandages back down over his eye. It was almost taunting how long he let Sasuke's eyes linger on it. "It was gift from mission that was necessary for the safety of this village. Similar to how your sensei got his."

Another user. Another sharingan user was in the village and Sasuke never knew. How come know one told hi-

"This not a secret I let many privy to Sasuke," Danzo continued. "I only show you because you deserve to know the reason why I can teach you everything you need. The reason I can give you the strength your sensei and the previous Hokage are to afraid to give."

The two were then abruptly interrupted by a knock on Sasuke's front door.

"Are you expecting visitors tonight?" Danzo asked. Sasuke shook his head. Another knock sounded again, this one a little more forceful. "Looks like you are needed. Go answer. I will be in my office tomorrow waiting for yours."

Sasuke didn't know why but he felt like he was just dismissed. Who the hell? This is his house! He was going to argue but the knocking came again, just as forceful as before. Without a word Sasuke made way and opened front door to see his sensei.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted nonchalantly.

Kakshi was a tall man that wore the typical Konoha uniform, flak jacket at all. The only thing that wasn't to uniform was the mask around the lower half of his face he always had on. None of his students had seen him without it. He also had a grey hair that stood up and he used his village head band to cover the eye which had his sharingan.

"What do you need Kakashi-sensei?" There was no time for pleasantries. Sasuke needed to continue the previous conversation he was having.

"I just wanted to check up on you. Make sure everything was ok." The scarecrow like man scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I think it has been a tough day for the both of us."

"Are you even properly recovered?" Sasuke remembered how beaten up his sensei looked early when he came to ask him for training, when he found out that Itachi was in the village.

"I'm in good enough condition to come and make sure one of my students is ok." Kakashi gave a small smile, or what his student assumed was a smile. It's always a little harder to read the facial expressions of someone who always wears a mask.

"I'm fine." Sasuke was about to shut the door until Kakashi put his hand on it to stop him. "What else do you need sensei?"

"We are having a team meeting tomorrow morning at 8:00 at our training field. I'm sure you will make it tomorrow right?"

It took a moment but Sasuke finally replied. "Sure, I'll see you there."

"Good," Kakashi said as he let go of the door. "Just want to talk with all of you about the next couple of months."

"Does it have to do anything about training?" While he didn't show it, Sasuke had a little hope that's what the meeting was about. He and Kakashi trained a lot before the third stage of the Chunin Exams and while he saw major improvement, he needed more.

"We will see." Kakashi replied. "The village is in dire straights right now, and they are going to need me for missions in the near future. But again, we will discuss tomorrow morning." The Jonin gave a small salute before he disappeared in a Shushin no Jutsu.

Quickly Sasuke shut the door and made his way back into his kitchen. Danzo had disappeared without a trace and now the boy was alone in his house, like usual.

Earlier Sasuke had been packing because he had planned to leave the village. Chase after his brother and finally get the revenge he wanted so desperately. But now he had something new dropped on the table. Someone else in the village had the sharingan. This is something he had to figure out. Fortunately for him though, Danzo said he would be waiting, and Sasuke had a lot of questions.

Now the only thing left to do tonight was reset all the traps the previously uninvited house guest set off or broke.

* * *

xX Fire Country Border Xx

On the boarder between Fire Country and Wind Country, in a clearing just before where the sands and the trees met, Jiraiya was making camp. Luckily for him and his sagely ways he was always packed for situations like this. It's really easy to keep everything you need with you inside a sealing scroll than on your back.

Once everything was set and he nodded to himself for a job well done, the little toad he had summoned in the interrogation room earlier jumped off his shoulder and onto the ground in front of him.

The toad gave a loud croak then opened its mouth wide. Comically, Jiraiya's young student slowly slid out of the toad's mouth, mop of blonde hair coming out first. Naruto's body laid completely straight, almost looking like a cadaver, with his face buried in the grass. With one more loud croak the toad un-summoned itself.

"You ok there?" It had been a few moments and Jiraiya had not heard a peep out of the boy, nor did he move. He thought he then heard Naruto say something but his voice was muffled by ground beneath him. The Toad Sage kneeled down and grabbed Naruto by his hair to lift his head up. "What was that gaki?"

"I WAS IN THERE FOR HOURS YOU ASSHOLE!"

Jiraiya immediately shoved Naruto's face back into the ground. "Keep quiet you moron!" He heard Naruto try to say something again but the boy's voice was once again muffled. He assumed it was a lot more cursing. "You want me to stop shoving your face into the dirt?" He felt Naruto nod his head. "You promise not shout when I let you go?" He felt Naruto nod his head again.

Jiraiya moved back and sat down so his student could collect himself. Naruto groggily sat up in a cross legged position and began to pat himself down for dirt and slime from the toad. "What the hell Pervy Sage, why did you torture me like that!" He said with a glare.

"Look gaki, I'm going to talk and I need you to listen." Jiraiya always to Naruto had a playful attitude. During their training he would joke, be lazy and an all round pervert. Especially the last one. So when Jiraiya's tone of voice was deadly seriously Naruto clammed up immediately and nodded that his sensei had his undivided attention.

"We are going to be on the run from Konoha for a while." Jiraiya continued. Naruto looked like he was about to protest but was quickly silenced when Jiraiya raised his hand. "I don't need to tell you things drastically changed after the Third Hokage died. What you probably didn't know though was the old man was protecting you from people inside the village who wanted to use what's trapped behind that seal of yours on your stomach.

Naruto on reflex raised his hand and placed where he knew the seal was. "They want to take the Kyuubi out of me?"

"No, they wanted to turn you into a shinobi that can use the Kyuubi's strength to protect the village."

"…. but isn't that a good thing?" Naruto asked with a very confused expression. The Kyuubi almost destroyed the village sure, but if he could learn to use its power then he would definitely be powerful enough to stop anything from trying to destroy it again!

"No. It's not a good thing because of the way they would have done it." Small amounts of killing intent slowly began to leak off of Jiraiya. It wasn't directed at Naruto, but the whiskered boy could feel it and he new his sensei was more than angry. "They would have stolen your humanity from you. They would have turned you into an emotionless shinobi that did nothing but take orders. You would learn to feel nothing. Even fear. And if they couldn't change you into what they wanted, they would take the Kyuubi out of you and put it into someone else who will take orders."

Naruto gulped hard. How could anyone want to live like that? How could anyone treat anyone like that!? "How could the Old Man let anyone like that stay in the village!?"

"It's a lot of social politics but these people still have a lot of supporters in the village." Jiraiya continued. "They believe this is the best way to keep the village safe and if Sarutobi-sensei pushed these people out of their positions he would have angered a significant amount of his forces. In his later years the Third spent a good portion of his time just keeping these people from gaining more influence over the village."

Well that is new information about the Hokage's position Naruto never new about. Even when you are at the top and you think everyone looks up to, you still have to continue to fight to change the minds of those around you. "So now that Hokage-jiji is gone…. These people you are talking about can do a lot more things in the village that they want."

"Glad you are catching on brat." Even though the mood was sombre, a small smile crept onto Jiraiya's face. "But I, your magnificent sensei, would not let do anything to harm you!" He had enough bravado to strike one of his dumb poses when he said that.

Even though his sensei tried to lift the mood, Naruto's deflated. "Great… so I'm on the run with you? Does this mean deserters!?"

"….technically….. yes."

"WHAT!?"

"Gaki quiet the fuck down!"

"NO!" Naruto jumped up and started pointing between him and Jiraiya. "We are so screwed!" He then started to pace around on the spot. "What will the village think? What will Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-teme or Iruka-senei think!? Oh no!….. what will Sakura-chan think!?" Stopping from pacing around, the blonde began to cry tears comically. "They are going to hate me and the village is going to send people to kill u- OW!" Jiraiya's fist rasped against his head. The blonde didn't even notice his sensei had gotten up.

"I told you to quiet down!" The toad sage then sighed dramatically. "Your sensei and your friends aren't going to hate you. And the village won't send anyone after us…. for a while. Besides you have bigger things to worry about."

"What could be worse than being on the run from your own village," the Jinchuriki asked heavy on the sarcasm.

"What if I told you that there is a group of shinobi who are all village deserters that are each almost or just as strong as me who want the Kyuubi inside of you as well." Naruto's haunted and owlish expression at the information was all the answer he needed. "Well it was about time you found out anyways."

"….. is there anything else you want to tell me that could make this day worse?"

Jiraiya place is hand under his chin and thought for a moment. "No I think that's it for today. We can see what the shit storm is tomorrow huh?" He then gave his student a pat on the back before going over to sit near the fire he had set up earlier.

Naruto dragged his feat over to the fire as well and sat across from his sensei. "So who are this new group of people then?

Jiraiya had picked up a near by stick to stoke the fire a little. "They are known as the Akatsuki. All I know is they are S-rank badasses and that my old traitor teammate used to be one of them."

Jiraiya's old teammate? Actually Naruto realised he ever asked about his sensei's life. "Who was your old teammate Pervy Sage?"

"His name is Orochimaru." Naruto could certainly hear the spite in his masters voice. "He betrayed the village years ago and is still on the run. You would know him as the man that killed the Third Hokage."

It had only been three days since the Third was murdered. Just hearing the name of the man who did made Naruto's blood boil. If there was anything that was on the top of Naruto's priority list it was getting strong enough to give that man ass kicking that he deserved.

"Orochimaru and the Akatsuki are not important right now." The white haired sage said, which distracted Naruto from his thoughts. "What's important right now is making sure the village will be ok. Which is why we are going to go find the next Hokage."

"You say that like you already know who the new Hokage is." Naruto stated.

"I do. The new Hokage is my other old teammate. Tsunade."

"So where is she?"

The Toad Sage looked at his disciple with deadpanned face. "What don't you understand about the word "find" gaki?"

Naruto just waved his sensei off. "Jeez sensei it's been a long day give me some slack!"


	2. Understanding Your Capabilities

xX Konoha Training Ground 3 Xx

It was early morning and two Genin stood waiting for their sensei. Sasuke and Sakura knew they would be waiting for Kakashi-sensei awhile. This was a common occurrence. What they both found weird was the fact that their loudmouthed blonde teammate was missing as well. Sure he would be late from time to time claiming he slept in to long but it had been over an hour since they were usually scheduled to meet.

Neither of them said anything about it to each other though. In fact they had both been leaning against the log posts in the middle of the training field since they both arrived. Sasuke could tell that Sakura had things on her mind she wanted to say. She would continuously keep taking quick glances at him and the turning away with a blush on her face. The Uchiha was sure that if they had been sitting on the ground she would have been trying to sneakily move closer to him like she did back in the Academy. But instead of acknowledging his pink haired teammates intentions, he kept a stone cold expression like normal. He had other things on his mind, like his meeting with Danzo later.

Sasuke needed to get to that meeting as quickly as possible. Last night after he had finished fixing and resetting all the traps in house, he laid awake thinking about the bandaged elder.

The sharingan. That man had the sharingan.

How much did he know about it? Did he know how to use it like Kakashi-sensei? He was alive and fighting long before his clan was killed off so he must have worked with Uchiha on missions and seen the sharingan in action at least. If he was up for the seat of Hokage he would have to at least be able to use it similar to how Kakashi could. Last night Sasuke did notice that unlike his sharingan eyes, Danzo's one had all three tomoe.

"Where do you think Naruto is Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said unintentionally interrupting Sasuke's train of though. Hey, she didn't know what was going through is head. All she knew was he was acting distant like usual. "You think he finally gave up trying to beat his alarm?" The pink haired gave a small laugh but it deflated quickly when the object of her admiration gave no answer. Hell he didn't even look at her.

She had to do something. This was the first time in a while she had Sasuke all to herself! She would have to do something to grab his attention and keep him interested. There was one thing that she new her love was always willing to do. It was the reason he always disappeared so quickly after team meetings. "Do you want to do some training before Kakashi-sensei gets here?"

Now that took Sasuke by surprise. Training? Whenever did his pink haired teammate want to do anything but try and cuddle up on him? "What kind of training?"

"What about Taijutsu?" While this was just a ploy to get his attention Sakura knew she lacked skill in the Taijutsu area of the shinobi arts. She saw how other Genin like Kiba and that Hyuuga boy Neji could fight and if anyone ever like them ever got close to her she would lose, badly. This training would kill two birds with one kunai. She would have Sasuke's undivided attention and she could get some practice in!

And it almost looked like the black haired boy was to going to agree. He got up from his lean on the post and faced his teammate. Sakura was mentally doing backflips in her head with glee. That is, she was until the two Genin were both unceremoniously interrupted by a swirl of leaves between them.

Emerging from his Shushin no Jutsu, Kakashi put his Icha Icha book away and gave his two students a small wave. "How's it going you two?"

The moment had been completely ruined and it showed on Sakura's face. Her fists were clenched in frustration. '_How can someone with such poor timing always managed to show up at just the wrong moments'_, she thought to herself. "You are late again sensei!"

Kakashi just waved her off. "I'm here now aren't I?" His eye smile was infuriating to both his students.

"What are we here to talk about Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asked a bit aggressively.

_'Straight to the point like usual. It's so hard to get some people bond with their teammates,'_ the Jonin thought to himself. He knew that was a little hypocritical of him to say but he has had many years to try and fix himself. His fellow Jonin liked him well enough. "I'm here to discuss how the next few months are going to go. I'm going to be on a lot of missions and I want to make sure my cute little Genin are properly taken care of."

"Kakashi-sensei, shouldn't we wait for Naruto?" The kunoichi of the group noted.

If either of the two Genin cared more about their teammate they probably would have taken more notice of Kakashi's small moment of hesitation to answer. Instead they took it as the Jonin thinking. "I wouldn't worry about Naruto for a while. He is going to preoccupied with some personal training with a new teacher."

Of course Kakashi knew what had actually happened. Anyone with Jonin rank and some perceptive Chunin had heard that Jiraiya had fled with Naruto in tow. You can't exactly break into Konoha's interrogation section, beat up a full squad of Anbu and not have anyone take notice. The Sannin always had Konoha's best interest at heart though and almost all the Jonin knew that. Which is why other than some squads of Anbu, no one was really going to jump at any missions to go after the Toad Sage. Hell there weren't even any posted yet.

The fact that Naruto was getting personal training struck a nerve with Sasuke. Again his teammate was getting the focus he needed to get more powerful. Sure Kakashi solely focused on training him during the month before the third stage of the Chunin Exams, but Sasuke needed that to continue. "What is happening with our training?" The young Uchiha asked.

"Like I said, the village is going to need me on missions for a while. So for right now team meetings will be on hold." That is not the news both his Genin wanted here. Both of them looked quite annoyed. "Don't worry though. I'm not going to leave you two stranded. I'm going to find someone to take my place temporarily and until then both Team 8 and Team 10 have agreed to bring you along on missions so you can continue to get field work."

_'So I won't be working with Sasuke-kun for a while and I will have to work on team with Ino-pig!?'_ This was turning out to be one Sakura's worst mornings.

_'I can't waste away working with some replacement teacher and do basic C-rank missions,'_ Sasuke seethed mentally. He finally had his first bit of information on his brother in years and now was not the time to take it easy because his sensei had other priorities. Danzo's offer was looking a lot better.

* * *

xX Small Town in Fire Country Xx

"Did I really need to do this Pervy Sage?"

In a small civilian town in Fire Country Naruto and Jiraiya were trying their best to keep a low profile. While shinobi presence in these places were low with maybe a patrol running through once a day, that didn't mean the two runaways weren't wary. While Jiraiya knew that there wouldn't be any missions to go after them and the bingo book wouldn't be updated for a while, Konoha would still be sending one or two squads of Anbu to look for them. They needed to look inconspicuous. This was the reason why Naruto was dressed in more nondescript clothing.

Young blonde had on a simple black form fitting t-shirt but it had a collar that went a little farther up his neck. On the lower half of his body he wore some beige colored pants and had black wraps that were woven around his ankles down to his heel, below his shinobi sandals. He also had some black wraps that went from his knuckles to about halfway up his forearms. On his waist he also kept his kunai pouch on his left hip. This was all currently hidden under a light brown poncho with a hood that was mostly used by Wind Country civilians and shinobi to protect themselves from the harsh winds of the dessert.

"I understand that I couldn't wear my headband anymore." Naruto had reluctantly put his headband away in one of Jiraiya's sealing scrolls. Now his mop of blonde hair fell onto his forehead more. "But why did I have to change into these clothes?" He tugged at them annoyingly as they were new clothes so they were itching is skin.

Jiraiya leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. Both he and Naruto after clothes shopping found a cafe where they could recharge with some food. The Toad Sage needed it. Shopping with the gaki was living hell. He fought against everything Jiraiya picked out because it wasn't 'orange enough' and the only reason Naruto even listened in the end was because he was threaten with more time inside another toad summon.

"Any shinobi worth half their weight in salt would have noticed you in that atrocity you call clothing." He would not be known for training someone who dressed in fashion faux pas. "Those clothes you are wearing now are a lot easier to forget."

"Then why the hell haven't you changed!?"

"Because I'm awesome." Jiraiya stated with a big grin. He received a deadpanned stare in return. "Gaki I'm a stealth master who has been traveling years gathering information completely unnoticed. You on the other hand are as subtle as a rhino in an explosive tag field."

Naruto crossed his arms in frustration and loudly huffed. He took serious offense to that. "I managed to paint the whole Hokage Monument before anyone caught me!"

"But they still caught you." The Sannin's grin grew even wider. "Hey don't stick your tongue out at me." He then grabbed is chin and squinted his eyes in thought. "You know maybe your disguise isn't good enough. Maybe we should dye that hair of yours?"

The blonde on reflex reached up and covered his hair and gave a harsh glare. "Touch my hair and I swear to Kami I will make your life a living hell!"

"Calm down gaki it was just a joke."

"Can we just focus on what's important here?" They were getting off topic. It has only been the second day since they ran from Konoha and the young Genin was still just trying to get used to the idea he couldn't return home. He wanted to know what the plan of action was. "Where is this Tsunade woman? I want to make sure the village will be ok, but I want to know what we are going to do."

It wasn't hard for Jiraiya to pick up on Naruto's sombre mood. Unlike him who had traveled and spent a lot of time outside Konoha, his student had only ever really known the village. In fact he didn't think Naruto ever left the village unless it was for a mission. "Alright let's get moving. We have some information we need to get while we are here."

"Here? In this small town?"

"Oh yea." As they had gotten up to leave, Jiraiya left some money on the table for their food. He made sure to hide from the blonde he nicked his toad wallet earlier to do so. "We are going to where you can find the most fun in any place."

The Sannin didn't have to look at his student to know the deadpanned stare he was receiving. "You just want to get laid Pervy Sage."

"Usually yes, but today it's because we want to find a gambling house."

"I didn't take you for someone who liked to spend money Sensei." Naruto had to pay for all of his new clothes out of his own pocket because Jiraiya 'didn't have enough money on him.' He knew about the popular Icha Icha books the Sannin wrote. Some of the descriptions of women in those books were helpful when he was coming up with his Sexy Jutsu! Kakashi-sensei reads them! Jiraiya had to be loaded. "Why would you try gambling?"

"As we travel together Gaki I'm going to teach you life lessons so you learn to become an amazing man like myself!" He, in a grandiose fashion, pointed at himself as he said that. "Lesson number one! Never use your own money to gamble with. But gambling is not why we are going to a gambling house. The last known location of Tsunade is she is traveling in Fire Country and she loves to gamble. If anyone has seen her it would be someone at a gambling house."

It only took half an hour but eventually they stumbled upon what they were looking for. It was a simple building but it had a steel door in front with a slit at eye level. Security here had to be a little be better than lock and key.

Jiraiya knocked a few times. The slit in the door opened and some man with a uni-brow was looking through. "What do you want?" He asked aggressively.

"Isn't this a gambling house? I want to play," the Sannin said.

"Private event. Place is closed today." The slit was then rudely closed.

A low growl escaped Jiraiya's lips. He did not want to stay in this town another day. He and his student were on a bit of a tight schedule. He was going to knock again but Naruto stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Pervy Sage I got this. Move out of the way so he can't see you." With a ram hand seal Naruto in a puff of smoke transformed in a tall sexy blonde woman with long pig tails. The woman's large assets were barely covered by a bright orange robe that went down to the ankles.

Almost immediately Jiraiya was moving around Naruto comically, looking him up and down. When did he take a notebook out? "Gaki this jutsu is amazing!"

"Pervy Sage get the hell away from me!" The student had to push his master away by the face. "We are here to get information aren't we? What am I asking about?"

Jiraiya managed to quickly collect himself, putting his notebook away. That was his godson he was staring at. Curse his quick reflexes at seeing a sexy woman. "Ask about the Legendary Sucker. Tsunade is a terrible gambler and it's the moniker she has that has caught on." He then disappeared in Shushin no Jutsu.

Naruto knocked on gambling house door and the slit opened again. "I already told you gu-" The man's eyes widened in shock at seeing Naruto's new appearance. "Ahem.. Hello little lady. What can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for my mother!" The blonde made sure to use his arms to push his chest together. "She said she was coming here and I just want to make sure she's ok."

"Well why don't you come in, and maybe there his something we can do to help you!" The slit closed and the door was quickly opened.

Naruto was led inside by the uni-brow man into a large squared room. A group of around ten men all dressed in fine black robes were sitting on the ground drinking. They had clearly been drinking for a while as on the table in the middle of the room were plenty of open bottles of sake.

"Gentleman. This young lady here is looking for her mother! Maybe you could help her out?" The uni-brow man said as he guided Naruto to sit down with the group.

"Whose your mother young lady?" One of the men next to Naruto asked.

"My mother is Tsunade, the Legendary Sucker."

All the men looked at each other in surprise before they raised their saucers of sake into the air. "Kampai!" They all shouted before downing them.

"Your mother is why we are drinking today. She lost a lot of money in our gambling house," another man said as everyone laughed.

"So you know where she is!?" Naruto made sure to use a very cutesy hopeful tone when asking. It definitely made some of the men blush.

"Sure honey," one of them continued. "Last I heard she was heading to Tanzaku-Gai."

"Thank you so much!" The blonde made sure to give a small bow before he tried to get up to leave. A hand of one of the men next to him grabbed his.

"I'm sure you mother isn't going leave Tanzaku-Gai anytime soon. Why don't you stay here for a little bit."

Naruto noticed all the men inched a little closer in his direction.

Outside the gambling house Jiraiya was sitting on a roof across the street looking down on the gambling house. Naruto had been in there for twenty minutes now and he was starting to get bored.

Luckily for him though his student walked out, looking like the normal young teenaged boy he was. Jiraiya hopped down and gave the jinchuriki and pat on the back. "That was smart thinking there gaki. Did you get the information we need?"

"Yep." Naruto placed his hand out like he was waiting for Jiraiya to give him something.

"What do you want?"

"Give me back Gama-chan. I know you took him." Jiraiya at least tried to look a little clueless, but his student's glare got to him. He grumbled a little before taking Naruto's toad wallet out of his pocket and returning it.

The young blonde took out a large handfuls of coins and bills out of his pockets and put them all in his wallet, before stuffing his Gama-chan into his kunai pouch. _'That should cover the clothes Pervy Sage made me buy and then some,_' he thought to himself.

"You robbed the people inside?" The Sannin asked. He wasn't angry, he just didn't take Naruto as someone who would steal from others.

"They were going to grope me sensei." Naruto shivered at the thought. "So I beat the crap out of them, knocked them out and took their money. That should teach them a lesson."

A proud smile couldn't help but cross Jiraiya's face. The brat was a good kid. "So where are we going next?"

"Tanzaku-Gai."

"Perfect. The time it will take to get there we can get started on training something new for you."

* * *

xX Konoha Xx

After most of Team 7 had finished their meeting, Sasuke immediately ditched Sakura who was following him and started looking for Danzo. It hadn't take long for him to find the man's office. The elder was a major political player in Konoha so it wasn't hard for a couple of Chunin to point the young Uchiha in the right direction.

"Enter," Sasuke heard from inside the office after a couple knocks. Inside was a simple office that looked well kept. What Sasuke noted though was it barely looked used. Everything was to pristine. Even on the desk there was no sign of any paperwork.

Sitting behind his desk Danzo did not even open is eye as the Genin entered. He was clearly thinking to himself and except for the "enter," he did nothing else to acknowledge Sasuke was even standing there waiting.

Eventually Sasuke's frustration got the better of him. "Well? I'm here."

"Hm." Danzo finally looked up at the boy. "You don't have patience. I will train that into you."

"Who said you could even train me properly?" Let it be known that Sasuke Uchiha does not take criticism well.

"Torune."

From the shadows in the ceiling of the office a young man dropped in front of Sasuke. He wore a mask that covered everything except his nose, mouth and short shaggy black hair. The mask had white glasses built in as well. Over his body he wore a black outfit that covered his whole body and a red sash that went around his waist. On his hands were simple black gloves.

The man had a tanto drawn and swung it at Sasuke, aiming for the boy's chest. The Uchiha was barely able to step back, dodging in time. He was sure that if his sharingan hadn't activated on reflex his chest would have been sliced open. The masked man did not hold the strike back. While Sasuke had stepped away to dodge the man had moved in with a sweeping kick that took the boy's legs out and had him fall to the ground.

Sasuke immediately while on his back tried to return with a sweeping kick of his own but the black clad man was easily able to jump over it and retaliated by throwing his tanto at the boy's head. Moving his head to the side, the tanto only just nicked the top of Sasuke's ear, and stuck into the floor. The Uchiha rolled to the side and quickly got up. He was trying to put some distance between him and his opponent, but as soon as he did so his back was against the wall. He was not ready for the Taijutsu assault that came his way.

Torune was right in Sasuke's face, throwing punches and trying to break the the young Uchiha's guard. Now that the initial surprise of being attacked was gone, Sasuke started to pick up on smaller details of the fight. Why were his moves feeling so sluggish? He definitely was not tired from training but it felt like he was losing chakra, and fast. It was then he noticed the small bug on his arm. And another on the other. And more on his legs! He was reminded of the bugs that other Konoha Genin in the Chunin Exams used against the Genin from Otogakure.

It was that small distraction where Sasuke finally noticed Torune's kikaichu that the Root shinobi took advantage and easily broke through Sasuke's guard. He grabbed the Genin by the throat, lifted and shoved him against the wall while also drawing a kunai ready to strike.

"Torune stop," Danzo said just before Torune finished the blow. The kunai was mere inches away from Sasuke's left eye. The Genin would never say it but in that moment he was fearful that he was going to lose one of his greatest gifts.

Torune did not let Sasuke go. He was still poised to strike at any moment. Danzo got up from his chair and slowly walked closer to the other two. "You lack patience. Your senses are so poor you cannot sense others trying to hide around you." The elder stood next to his Root shinobi. He had a strong and stern look on his face. "What's worse is you don't fully understand the capabilities of the sharingan. First, while those eyes can see the world move slower that doesn't mean your body is fast enough keep up with everything around you. Second, the sharingan can only help you pick up details on what you are already looking for. They are not magical eyes that will somehow give you all the information you need on how to beat your opponent. Many Uchiha back in the day lost their lives because of that arrogance."

Sasuke wanted tell the elder off and to not insult the Uchiha clan, but Danzo had the sharingan himself, and most likely longer than him. He may have had it longer than Kakashi! It was also hard to scold someone when you were pressed up against a wall by your throat, chakra being drained and death pointing at you a mere millimetre away.

"Torune let him down." The Root shinobi did as he was told then stepped behind his master, as well as calling back his kikaichu. Sasuke clutched his throat, massaging it so it was easier to get regular airflow back. "So what do you say? Will you take the opportunity I'm giving you?"

"When do we start," Sasuke asked through ragged breaths.

"Stand." It took the Uchiha a few moments but he was able to do so. "I cannot have you join Anbu because you failed to make Chunin." Sasuke grunted annoyingly hearing that. "I also cannot take you away from the rest of the village as your bloodline is political tool that will be noticed if it disappears. You will train with me and my shinobi when you are not with your Genin team and on missions. You are dismissed for the day. I will have one of my shinobi come get you when you are to start your training."

Sasuke definitely had more questions but the authority in Danzo's voice made it clear he needed to leave. This was definitely the no nonsense get the job done kind of teacher Sasuke thought he needed. Kakashi may be strong but his lack of urgency with his students was making progress difficult. Hell Sakura hadn't shown any major improvement since the tree climbing exercise in the Land of Waves. The Jonin leader may have taken initiative training Sasuke exclusively during the month leading up to the third stage of the Chunin exams but that was only because of the opponent he was supposed to face first. And even then Naruto was the one who took Gaara down!

With a small nod, The Uchiha made his way out of the office, set on going home to get prepared for what was about to come. Danzo waited to make sure Sasuke was out of ear shot.

"Torune, tell Sai I have a new assignment for him."

* * *

xX Tanzaku-Gai - Week Later Xx

"No, we are not getting ramen from the cart outside."

"You may not want to but I am!"

Jiraiya had to grab Naruto by the back of his poncho and drag him along. It had been about a week since Jiraiya and Naruto left the gambling house to their next destination. During that time they spent their days walking and their evenings training. Now it was the eighth day and they had just arrived in Tanzaku-Gai

Sensei dragged student into one of the most popular restaurants in the small city and they were both led by a hostess to a small booth at the back.

"Why do we have to eat here Pervy Sage?" Naruto grumbled as he took his seat in the booth.

"Well while you were slobbering over the idea of getting some ramen from the cart outside. I asked someone what the most popular restaurant was. This is it." The Toad Sage was making himself comfortable and raised his hand to call over the waitress.

"That still doesn't answer why we have to eat here." Naruto was holding up a menu he found on the table, squinting while looking at some of the ludicrous prices.

"If this place is the most popular, it also means that it serves the best booze so-"

"I'm not paying for you to get loaded Pervy Sage!" The Genin interrupted looking up from his menu with a glare.

Naruto was starting to get on the Toad Sage's nerves so he returned his student's glare with one of his own. "My training doesn't come cheap gaki."

"What training!? All you've done is beat my ass in sparing every night and get me to pop balloons!"

Both of them had leaned closer to each other, eye contact never breaking. If you were to look closely it was almost as if sparks of anger were flowing between their eyes.

"Ahem."

The duo turned their heads to see a waitress ready with pen and notepad ready to take their order. The sensei and student's glares were enough to make the waitress a little flustered. Her cheeks reddened and she lowered her head. "Wha-a-t can I-I get for you t-two?" She managed to stutter out.

The tension between the two shinobi immediately crumbled and both of them sat back a little more calm. "Can I get a couple bottles of your best sake sweetheart," Jiraiya asked with a wink. The waitress immediately ran off to do what was asked of her.

Clearly there was more to Naruto's attitude than just how Jiraiya was treating him. Giving each other shit was pretty typical during training for them. Hell, during the training leading up to the third phase of the Chunin Exam Naruto cursed him so much after he knocked the boy over a cliff even he learned a few new words. Where does an orphan get that kind of vocabulary?

No, it wasn't either of them that was the issue, it was the position they were forced into. Naruto was still coming to terms with being knocked down another rung on the ladder of life. Before he was just disliked in the village but he was still able to live there. Now he couldn't even do that because people wanted to abuse the monster inside of him. It was understandable to get that frustrated. And when you are that frustrated it becomes easy to lash out at the things around you.

"I know you aren't happy with what is going on right now gaki." Jiraiya did his best to speak in a calm tone so as not the have tensions rise again. "But everything I have done since we left the village has been for a good reason."

"So what is our reason for coming to this restaurant?" The blonde had clearly relaxed a little because nothing in his voice came across as antagonistic. As the boy asked the waitress had returned and placed down the two bottles of sake ordered. It was surprising when his sensei didn't immediately grab one. "You aren't going to drink?"

"These are going to get our foot in the door so to speak. Tsunade loves to gamble, but she loves to drink more. She only drinks from the top shelf so she will only come to the best restaurant in town which will have the best booze. If we already have what she is looking for, she will be more likely to hear us out."

"What if she doesn't show up tonight?"

"Well then we have some damn fine liquor to drink don't we?"

Naruto palmed is forehead hard, hard enough for some other patrons to turn around and look at him. "Kami Pervy Sage… And what the hell do you mean we? I can't drink that shit."

"You are a trained killer gaki. I'm sure you can have some sips of sake." Jiraiya's eyes lit up at something he spotted near the entrance of the restaurant. "But I don't think you will have to worry about that now."

"Jiraiya? What are you doing here?"

Naruto turned around to see who had called out his sensei's name. Near the entrance he saw a beautiful blonde woman with two ponytails that went down here back. She wore a green haori with kimino like blouse underneath. None of her clothing was able to hide the sizeable cleavage she had.

Next to her stood another woman with shot black hair and a black kimino on. What was really unique though was the pig she held in her hands.

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya said as he raised one of the sake bottles on the table. "Come join us!"

"Whose the brat?" Tsunade asked as she and her companion walked over and took a seat. Naruto moved to the other side of the booth sitting next to his sensei.

"Hello!" the black haired woman said quickly. "My name is Shizune." She gave a small wave to Naruto. He was polite and waved back with a smile.

"This," Jiraiya said putting his hand on Naruto's head and giving it a ruffle, "is my newest student. Uzumaki Naruto! Someone who can truly appreciate my teachings." He failed to hear the grumble of 'perverted teachings' from his student's lips.

_'The Kyuubi Jinchuriki'_ Tsunade thought to herself. "What are you doing here Jiraiya." Clearly her mood wasn't for pleasantries at the moment. In fact the Toad Sage had noted that neither of the two kunoichi had looked like they had been in the best of spirits when they came in.

The Toad Sage's eyes hardened as he looked at his old teammate. "The Third is dead."

If he was expecting a shocked reaction he certainly did not get it. Instead both Tsunade and Shizune lowered their heads. Tsunade grabbed a saucer and poured herself some sake "I already know. I met someone today." She took a big swig of booze.

"Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked with a low growl in his voice.

"Orochimaru!" Naruto almost jumped out of his seat. "The guy who killed the old man was here!?"

"Gaki calm down," the male Sannin said turning his eyes down on his student. "We can figure that out later." The blonde clearly wanted to argue but reluctantly did as he was told. Jiraiya's eyes turned back to his former teammate. "I'm just going to get straight to the point then. The village needs you to become the next Hokage."

Both kunoichi were clearly shocked at the request but Tsunade significantly more so. "What makes you think I would ever be Hokage?" The female Sannin said aggressively.

"Since the Third passed away, Danzo has been making moves in the village. He played his cards and forced the gaki and I out of the village. Soon we are going to be labeled missing shinobi. We need you to take the position to stop him before he gains full influence over the village and becomes Hokage himse-."

"Let him," Tsunade answered immediately. "Taking that position is a death sentence. My grandfather and the second Hokage focused to much on bringing peace to the village. They died on the battle field just like the losers did. Taking the position of Hokage is a fools choice."

The female Sannin did not notice it but Naruto was clenching his fists below the table. "Maybe if Danzo is foolish enough," Tsuande continued, "he will sacrifice himself stupidly for the village just like the Thir-"

She barely caught the kunai that was thrown at her between her fingers. Naruto had thrown it, and he may have been aiming for her shoulder but it would have caused a serious injury for a normal shinobi if it had hit.

"Jiraiya you are really training a moron of a student." Tsunade continued, leaking killing intent in Naruto's direction.

"He may be thick headed sometimes but in this case I don't have problems with his actions," Jiraiya said. The sharp look he was giving the other Sannin could cut stone.

"Shut up!" All eyes turned to Naruto who was staring at the older female shinobi. His eyebrows were furrowed in anger. "I will not let anyone insult the Third Hokage! All the Hokage were amazing people who fought to make this world a better place and protect the village! I will not let anyone bad mouth the people who were willing to sacrifice everything others." Naruto stood up from his seat and punched his fist into is palm. "I don't give a fuck who you are, I'm going to kick your ass!"

Both of the blondes stared at each other for a few moments. The tension between them could be felt across the whole restaurant.

Tsunade got up from her seat as well. "You got a lot of guts to say that to me brat. Why don't we take this outside." She then made her way out, Naruto not following not to far behind.

"You are just going to let him fight Tsunade-sama!?" Shizune asked Jiraiya in shock.

The Toad Sage just waved her off. "The gaki can pick his own fights. Tsunade won't kill him anyways." He then got up himself.

It was a cool night outside and barely anyone was out, which was good for what was about to happen. Out in front of the restaurant in the middle of the street, Tsunade and Naruto were standing about thirty feet apart facing each other. Jiraiya and Shizune stood by the restaurant's entrance.

"You know you are challenging one of the legendary three from Konoha brat?" Tsunade said with a cocky smirk. "I only need to use one finger to beat someone like you."

"Oh shut up!" Immediately Naruto formed the hand seal for his favorite jutsu and in a cloud of smoke which dissipated quickly ten copies of himself appeared.

"Well I'm glad he learned his lesson." Shizune heard Jiraiya say.

"What do you mean?" The young kunoichi asked. Even her small pig oinked in curiosity.

"Well for the past week we have been sparing and one of his first lame tactics was to just charge me. Well any shinobi who didn't just leave the academy would know how to handle a person charging them stupidly like that." Jiraiya started to chuckle to himself. "So I literally beat it into his head how stupid it was."

Both Shizune and Tonton both sweatdropped. Who enjoyed beating up their own student?

Naruto and his clones charged Tsunade. The female Sannin didn't show she was worried at all. She gracefully side stepped a few of the punches from some of the clones before puncturing her finger through their foreheads. She made quick work of all ten before ducking under the thrust of a kunai from the original. It wasn't hard to track where the original Naruto was the whole time and with just her finger she hit the pressure point on the boy's wrist holding the kunai

Naruto, from the Sannin's strike, dropped the kunai and Tsunade caught it, spun it on her finger into her hand and then threw at the boy cutting his cheek. Stumbling from being caught so off guard, the young blonde didn't notice when Tsunade had her finger ready to flick his forehead. With force that should not be capable with just a finger, Naruto was sent flying back and crashed into the ground.

Tsunade had barely moved from where she had started. None of what she had just done was difficult for her and she knew it. It was written all over her face with an egotistical smile. That smile disappeared though when she saw Naruto start to get up with a struggle. His breaths were ragged and he was bruised all over his face. His eyes though showed nothing but determination as he was staring directly at her.

"Hey kid," the female Sannin said, "Why the hell do you get so excited by just hearing the word Hokage?"

Naruto wiped away the dirt that was on his lips with his wrist. "Unlike you I want to become Hokage. It's my dream to become Hokage!" The Jinchuriki yelled with smile.

For a second, the silhouettes of the two people Tsunade had loved the most appeared behind her young opponent. Her brother and her lover had the exact same smile and determination in their eyes when they told her the same. Tsunade hung her head slightly, not being able to meet Naruto's gaze.

"One more thing you old hag." That quickly pulled Tsunade out of her small funk as the street seemed to drop a phew degrees at the 'old hag' comment. Jiraiya told Naruto how old the female Sannin was, so he technically wasn't wrong. "I don't give up on anything until I'm dead."

Before Tsunade could reply she felt the ground beneath her move. Shooting out of the ground, one in front of her and two on the side, were three more Naruto's all with kunai's drawn. While this may have taken a Genin or a fresh Chunin off guard, Tsunade had way to many years of experience to be caught off guard by something so simplistic. She gracefully contorted her body to dodge all three kunai strikes before again decimating the clones again with her finger, taking out the one in front of her last.

What the female Sannin was not expecting was through the clearing of the smoke of the last clone, the real Naruto shot through with a barely controlled wild ball of pure chakra contained between his two hands, which was aimed right at her chest.

_'He managed to get that far with jutsu already?'_ Jiraiya thought to himself. _'Damn I'm an excellent sensei.'_

Instinctively, Tsunade with lightning like reflexes, reached out and grabbed the young boy by the wrist. Jiraiya and Shizune had to quickly step to the side as Tsunade swung Naruto around and threw him into the outside wall of the restaurant where they had been standing. Naruto hit the wall back first, crumbling part of it and shattering the window near him from the force. A few yells of shock could be heard from inside.

Shizune was immediately next to the boy, checking him over. "Are you ok?"

"Jiraiya! Were you the one whose teaching him the Rasengan?" Tsunade asked as she walked over to where everyone was.

"Well I am his sensei," the Toad Sage replied.

"Teaching him something he cannot do and you leading him to believe he can is foolish. This is what makes people have delusional dreams of wanting to become Hokage."

"Three days." Everyone turned to look at Naruto who was groggily sitting up. His bones felt stiff and his head was swimming. Damn that woman was fucking strong. "Three days you old hag and I will master the Rasengan!"

"Big words for a brat." Tsunade said with a cocky grin. "You know man's word should never be taken back."

"I always keep my word," the jinchuriki said with a harsh glare. "That is my shinobi way."

"Is that so…" Reaching into her blouse, Tsunade pulled out a necklace that had a green jewel. "Alright let's make a bet. I'll give you a week and if you can master the Rasengan I'll acknowledge that you can become Hokage and I'll give you this necklace."

"Tsunade-sama!" _'She never bets the necklace!'_ Shizune thought to herself.

"Why would I care for a necklace?" Naruto was finally in good enough shape to stand up again. He brushed off the rubble that was on his pant legs and poncho.

"Gaki that necklace was the First Hokage's," Jiraiya chimed in. "You could buy three mountains if you sold that."

"….alright," Naruto finally agreed. Hey if it was worth a lot of money why not? "Three days and you'll be eating your words!"

"Good." Tsunade turned to leave but as she did so she pulled something out of her blouse again and held it over her shoulder to show the boy as she walked away. "But if you lose I get to keep all your money." She was holding up Naruto's toad wallet Gama-chan. "Shizune let's go."

When the hell did she take Gama! The Jinchuriki thought to himself angrily.

"Tsunade let's get a drink tomorrow!" Jiraiya called out as the two kunoichi were leaving. "Well gaki you got your ass handed to you. Do you also really think you can win the bet?"

"I got her to fight me with more than just her finger didn't I?"

The previous fight came into the Toad Sage's mind and he remembered that Tsunade had physically thrown his student with her whole hand. With a chuckle he placed his hand on his student's head and ruffled his hair. "Well done gaki, you fought slightly better than miserable."

"WHOSE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"

A man stood outside the restaurant crying anime tears as he stared where Naruto's body had severely cracked the wall and broken the window. From the way the man was dressed in fine clothing, he was clearly the owner of the establishment. Looking around, the man's eyes locked onto the two male shinobi.

"You boy! You are paying to fix my restaurant!"

"Wha-?" Why was the man only talking to him? His sensei was here to. That was, until the young blonde looked next to him to see a swirl of leaves falling to the ground.

"Pervy Sage you asshole!"

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**I'm not the fastest writer so I ask you all bear with me while I try to write as fast as I can. ****I appreciate the followers I already have so far. **

**Update soon.**


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